Muslim
Commercial Bank (MCB) was privatized in early nineties and since then
has been going through major restructuring programme. A commendable
feature is that unlike other public sector banks, MCB carried out the
restructuring at its own initiative and without financial assistance
from the government. Now it is well positioned to reap the benefits.
The decline in provisioning requirements, revamped treasury and
improved balance sheet strength have a positive impact on net profit
after tax, which has registered persistent increase on year to year
basis. Yet efforts are being made to achieve new levels of excellence.

SAARCMember states at the
recently concluded Saarc Summit reaffirmed their commitment to
fostering good neighbourly relations, relieving tensions and building
confidence. Summit agreed to the vision of a phased and planned
process eventually leading to a South Asian Economic Union. A
regionally agreed investment framework to meet investment needs of the
member states and to finalize the draft of the free trade treaty by
the end of this year.

BANDWIDTH
TARIFFPTCL slashed the bandwidth
tariff from $ 15,000 to $ 6,000 per month from the first of this
month. However there is a catch — the bandwidth rate stays unchanged
at $ 15,000 per month though the price now include 5 megabits of data
transfer per second instead of 2 mbps previously. The move allows PTCL
to fix the rate at $, 15,000 minimum as it does not allow the users to
buy a 2mb circuit, or a variation thereof, which in case of a real
reduction could have cost many small ISPs an affordable $ 6,000.